Tag: The Clone Wars

Origins

The Unity Wars got its start in June 2015, as “Alternate Star Wars Prequels.” (This was about six months before The Force Awakens was released, so the dumpster fire that is the Disney/Lucasfilm sequel trilogy had yet to begin.) I had been dissatisfied with the prequels (and the direction they led Star Wars as a whole in) for quite a long time, as much as I hadn’t wanted to be, and had a weird little writing prompt pop into my head one day. “How would I do it differently, more in keeping with what was hinted at in both the original movies and novelizations, as well as some of the West End Games material and the Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire trilogy?”

I scribbled some notes, but later abandoned it, because I had no desire to get sued into oblivion by the juggernaut that is The Mouse. I always kind of wanted to finish it, but I had other projects.

New Plan

It was Galaxy’s Edge that showed the way, and I’ve since made The Unity Wars it’s own thing, even though it still follows many of the elements I wanted to explore with the alternate Clone Wars. Clone tech is supposed to be as scary and dangerous as Zahn posited in the Thrawn trilogy, and the clones are supposed to be borderline psychotic enemies of the good guys (though I scrapped the Republic altogether, for various reasons).

Along the way, however, I delved into some of the alternate ideas about the Clone Wars that were out there. There’s not a lot of pre-’99 lore left aside from what was in print from West End and some of the other affiliates. But that alone provides some semi-cohesive inspiration.

And, a friend pointed out the following videos. They’re interesting, and better than what we got, in my estimation, though I went in a considerably different direction.

No, I’m not talking about the cartoon series The Clone Wars.

I watched the Tartovsky cartoon when it came out, but never watched the computer animated movie or series. No, I’m talking about the concept of the Clone Wars as George Lucas formed it within the prequels.

Someone asked me the other day what itch The Unity Wars will scratch that Star Wars won’t. So, I’m trying to answer that question.

What is wrong with the Clone Wars? Well, to start, it helps to go back to pre-2002, and what the Original Trilogy and the Expanded Universe had to say about them. There wasn’t a lot of detail available, purportedly by design. (Though that might be open to question.) But there were hints. Continue reading